here's a quick rundown of my experience. i have 5 years at SmithBarney, the private wealth management arm of Citigroup. i've been an intern, sales assistant, and now the reasearch/investment analyst for my team. we have $700AUM. i handle reasearch for securities, and sectors per our clients requests and provide advice. our main clients are very analytical, so i get quality exposure to different security types.

 

HF would focus more on your quantitative and programming skills rather than just a qualification. None of the people I know who work in HF has CIPM or CAIA. If you do want to take one of them, I would recommend CFA coz it has the best reputation. The other two are rubbish and doesnt help at all.

 
nutsaboutWS:
I think this is a no brainier. The CFA is the most prestigious and best recognized charter. Don't beat around the bush and go for others.

I´ll second that

http://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/ http://www.tradersmagazine.com/
 

Agree with timergooff. I had folks telling me "CAIA is better for PE as it puts a stronger PE emphasis", not realising this is apparently exclusively FoF-related stuff.

I have no clue about markets/trading/HF but if you were looking to move from consulting to PE, CFA would give you a marginally higher edge as it covers the interesting valuation bits.

 

If you want to do FoFs in particular then the CAIA is better. Anything else go for CFA. CAIA really is just a compliment to the CFA. It is great for FoFs, and analyzing managers, CFA doesn't even go into that. However CFA will always be the gold standard.

 

I am also interested in AM (particularly private capital, and PE-related investments), but I've decided on CFA.

Why? Because all of the MDs/Heads have CFAs, and CFAs seem to respect one another over their non-charter-holding peers. They can't relate to the CAIA as much, even if it is more relevant for the position. Trust me, I'd rather just take the CAIA (more interesting, and only 2 exams), but I imagine one would get more out of their CFA.

I would love to hear more opinions, though.

 

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